Last Week's Track: #2 - Kerosene

Big Black was an punk-noise band started in 1982 on a four-track recorder by Steve Albini. With Albini on guitar and vocals, Santiago Durango on guitar, David Riley on bass and Roland the Drum Machine, Big Black issued a number of EP's and two full LP's, Atomizer (1985) and Songs About Fucking (1987).

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"Kerosene," track 4 from Atomizer, is a great example of the raw abrasive noise of Big Black. The subject matter, the boredom of life in small-town USA enlivened up by arson, was not far removed from my own experience in a dead-end rural landscape. A number of junior firemen in my old home town were discovered to have been setting fires, then riding their bicycles back to the fire station and waiting for the alarm to go off. Once a friend of mine and I happened upon one of these fires out in the woods behind his house--it would have probably destroyed his family's home and several others if we had not discovered it when we did. I also remember this Porta-John somehow catching on fire one afternoon...who would have thought that a small campfire inside would not have just gone out by itself? But I had nothing to do with that. Nothing!

In the days before alternative rock and grunge swept onto the popular scene, bands like Big Black were very much under the radar, though in heavy rotation on the local college radio stations. In the midst of Reaganomics and SDI, Big Black pretty much summed up all the angst and frustration of livin' in the USA under 7:]

According to Albini:

Quote:

in small towns there are few forms of amusement. two prominant onces are easy sex and arson. when the more simple exercises lose their bang, new combinations develop.

I was born in this town, live here my whole life
Probably come to die in this town, live here my whole life
Never anything to do in this town, live here my whole life
Never anything to do in this town, live here my whole life
Probably learn to die in this town, live here my whole life
Nothing to do, sit around at home
Sit around at home, stare at the walls
Stare at each other and wait till we die
Stare at each other and wait till we die
Probably come to die in this town, live here my whole life
There's Kerosene around, something to do
There's Kerosene around, she's something to do
There's Kerosene around, she's something to do
There's Kerosene around, we'll find something to do
Kerosene around, she's something to do
Kerosene around, set me on fire
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire
Kerosene around, something to do
There's Kerosene around, find something to do
There's Kerosene around, find something to do
Kerosene around, find something to do
Kerosene around, she's something to do
Kerosene around, set me on fire
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire
Kerosene around, she's something to do
Kerosene around, now what do we do?
Jumped Kerosene, now what do we do?
Jumped Kerosene, now what do we do?
Kerosene around, nothing to do
Jumped Kerosene, now what do we do?
Never anything to do in this town
Never anything but jump Kerosene
Never anything to do in this town
Never anything
Jump Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire

Comments

Hell yeah! One of the all-time kick-arse tracks. Sweet memories of turning up the stereo and my punk mates and I throwing each other round the room. We named one of our short-lived bands after this number.

Big Black were a great band! I remember one of the girls in class had a Big Black-Songs About Fucking shirt on one day, and I was curious. I didn't really get into them until a few years ago, sadly. I'm usually behind on the good mid to late 80s bands. Why the hell didn't someone tell me about Mission of Burma, too ferchrissakes?!?

A friend in high school gave me a copy of the Headache EP on cassette. All my cassettes have been history since the nineties but I finally got a copy of Rich Man's Eight Track last year which is that EP plus Atomizer.